With his seven newspapers secretly sold out from under him, Times Mirror chief Mark Willes says no other newspaper company will ever hire him.

In the aftermath of the announced Tribune-Times Mirror merger, Willes said he wasn’t sure where he would find a job. Willes told The Hartford Courant, which is owned by Times Mirror, “There are a lot of things I’d love to do over again.”

“I think, given the enormous amount of controversy that I have been the lightning rod for, I think it’s exceptionally unlikely that anybody else in the industry would be interested in me,” he said.

Willes caused a number of controversies, such as those that followed his abruptly shutting New York Newsday, breaking down the wall separating editorial and advertising at the Los Angeles Times, and accepting advertising money for running what appeared to be an editorial feature spread on the new Staples Center stadium.

As far as having the rug pulled from under him when the Chandler family — which controls Times Mirror — sold it without telling him, Willes said, “I’m saddened and I’m disappointed, but I’m not bitter.”

Wall Street, meanwhile, is having a new love affair with newspapers, an industry it had generally shunned until this week’s $8 billion plan to merge Tribune Co. and Times Mirror.

“The Tribune transaction illustrates that newspapers have a long bright future in the media mix of the new economy,” said media analyst Leland Westerfield of PaineWebber.

He said the continued strong growth of advertising in newspapers is the very currency that e-commerce companies “need to build their brands.” “I believe investors have realized this,” he said.

Blue-chip stocks shot up across the board in yesterday’s buying spree of Big Board stocks, with newspaper stocks showing their best day in a while.

Tribune rose nearly 10 percent to $37.37, up $3.31. Times Mirror gained $3.87 to $93.06, Dow Jones added $3.12 to $70.25 and The New York Times jumped $2.51 to $45. The Washington Post rose $20.50 to $513, Knight-Ridder was up $2.81 to $52.31 and Gannett gained $4.37 to $70.81.